Articles - Page 147

<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/critics/andycohen">Andy Cohen</a><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/critics/deane"> </a>is the founding architect of Sitecore XM Cloud. He is VP/Chief Architect at <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.altudo.co/">Altudo</a>, and a CMS Critic contributor. <hr /> When people talk about personalization, they often mean “the right content to the right person at the right time.” That idea is now past tense.I have watched this shift play out up close, from <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/sitecore">Sitecore’s</a> early rules-based personalization, through <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/contentstack">Contentstack’s</a> use of edge-based personalization in a composable architecture, to <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/optimizely">Optimizely’s</a> launch of Opal, a system of marketing AI agents. Personalization no longer stops at swapping content on a page. It now reaches into the interaction itself, and soon, into the relationships agents form with one another.<h3 id="when-agents-adapt-to-us">When Agents Adapt to Us</h3>That shift, from “what” to “how,” is where the major CMS players are already moving, and you can see it in the different bets they're making:<ul><li>Contentstack has put its weight behind <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/livin-on-the-edge-contentstacks-new-adaptive-dxp-might-just-rock-your-world">EDGE</a>, which they call a hyper-personalization platform. It blends their headless CMS with a real-time CDP, AI, and automation. The goal is simple but ambitious: deliver one-to-one experiences in the moment and at scale. Because it is composable, brands can adapt interactions without locking themselves into rigid patterns. What strikes me about EDGE is that it reframes personalization as something continuous, not a campaign you set and forget.</li><li>Optimizely has taken another route with <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/optimizely-opal-gets-supercharged-for-agentic-ai-powering-infinite-use-cases-for-marketers">Opal</a>. Instead of a single assistant, Opal is built as a collection of agents that act like members of a marketing team. There is a campaign manager agent, a personalization advisor, a market researcher, and more. With the 2.0 release, Optimizely put the emphasis on letting these agents collaborate and run multi-step workflows across content, data, and experimentation. I have seen teams spend weeks coordinating those same steps manually. Opal hints at a world where marketing execution is handled by an ensemble of digital teammates who can plan, act, and adjust together.</li><li>Sitecore has focused on bringing assistance directly into daily work. Through <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.sitecore.com/products/sitecore-stream">Stream</a>, they have introduced AI copilots that support authors and marketers in real time as they draft and optimize campaigns. On top of that, Sitecore’s partnership with <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/sitecore-sharpens-ai-focus-with-strategic-partnership-and-new-leadership-appointments">Gradial</a> shows how agentic workflows can extend into campaign execution. It is not just about smarter editors or quicker drafts. It is about agents that can carry intent through to delivery and adapt along the way. For a company that has lived for years in the world of static content publishing, that is a meaningful step forward.</li></ul>None of these approaches feels like a gimmick.They are different answers to the same problem: personalization is no longer about what content you are shown, it is about how the interaction unfolds. Whether that happens through hyper-personalization at the edge, through orchestrated marketing agents, or via copilots and execution partners, the shift is real and already in motion.<h3 id="what-nondeterminism-really-means">What Nondeterminism Really Means</h3>Most software behaves like math: 2 + 2 always equals 4. Generative AI does not. Ask it to draft a thank-you note and you will get three different answers, all plausible, none identical. That variability is what we call nondeterminism.It is the very thing that makes AI feel creative, but also the reason it needs personalization to stay useful. As <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://parivedasolutions.com/perspectives/managing-the-non-deterministic-nature-of-generative-ai/">Pariveda Solutions points out</a>, nondeterminism is what makes AI flexible and creative, but it also introduces governance challenges that remain unresolved. In my own work with <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/getting-loud-with-xm-cloud-sitecore-reports-100-growth-of-its-ai-powered-cloud-based-cms">XM Cloud,</a> I have seen how unpredictable outcomes can be a feature if the system adapts well – and a liability if it does not.<h3 id="when-agents-adapt-to-each-other">When Agents Adapt to Each Other</h3>The next frontier is agents adapting not just to us but to each other. Nondeterminism multiplies when two autonomous systems interact. They need ways to converge on workable outcomes.Sometimes that looks like adjusting communication style, where one agent is structured and terse, another free-form and verbose. Sometimes, it means learning to accept differences in task style, such as fast approximation versus cautious step-by-step reasoning. Other times it's about role negotiation: who leads, who validates, who escalates.And sometimes it is memory. Agents do not just adapt in the moment; they remember. That memory can look like a grudge. A search agent that hallucinated last time will get fact-checked the next. A procurement agent that botched a deal may face stricter oversight. Even first impressions stick. If an agent’s very first hand-off is sloppy, the other agent may never fully trust it, no matter how good the later work becomes.Humans behave the same way. In corporate life, one bad kickoff meeting can color a partnership for months. Agents will carry those patterns too.<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.deepset.ai/blog/ai-agents-and-deterministic-workflows-a-spectrum"> Deepset calls this the “spectrum of determinism to nondeterminism</a>.” I call it relationship management.<h3 id="everyday-illustrations">Everyday Illustrations</h3>Picture a grocery agent told to buy apples if they are $0.99 a pound. A deterministic system comes back empty because they are $1.09. An adaptive one checks with you, “They are a little higher today. Should I buy anyway?” That is useful, until the store’s own agent learns to nudge yours into paying even more.Or ride-hailing. You set a $20 target. The price surges to $23. Do you want your agent to decline, wait, or decide on its own? What happens when the ride-share’s agent starts upselling yours into priority pickup at $28?Or travel. You say, “Book me a flight under $500.” The system finds none. A flexible agent returns with, “There is one at $525 with better times. Should I grab it?” Helpful, but it shows how quickly rules can bend.In the enterprise, this gets thornier. Procurement policies might cap software licenses at $50 per seat. A deterministic agent halts the deal. A personalized one negotiates to $55 and closes it. That looks like a win until you realize the vendor’s agent deliberately anchored higher, knowing yours would flex upward.Healthcare raises the stakes even more. You ask for an appointment with your doctor next week. A rigid agent says none available. A personalized one offers a nurse practitioner tomorrow or a specialist in two weeks. That looks like a better experience, but it could also push you toward higher-margin services instead of the care you really wanted.<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.salesforce.com/blog/deterministic-ai/">Salesforce has written about this exact problem</a> of when to script agents tightly and when to let them roam. I see it every day in delivery projects. Too rigid and you frustrate users. Too loose and you open the door to manipulation.<h3 id="agents-that-carry-“you”-with-them">Agents That Carry “You” With Them</h3>Now push it further. Imagine your agent not only executes tasks but carries your personality footprint into every interaction. If you are cost-sensitive, it pushes harder. If you are time-poor, it pays more for speed. If you are detail-driven, it double-checks everything.What if you could swap personas entirely?<ul><li>"Frugal Andy" does the grocery shopping</li><li>"Executive Andy" books the flights</li><li>"Playful Andy" explores games and hobbies.</li></ul>Your agent would not only personalize to you. It would personalize as you.But there is risk in this. If the other agent knows who you are or which persona you are using, it can adapt back. That can be powerful when aligned with your goals, but it can also be exploited. Imagine a vendor agent that recognizes executive mode and steers you toward premium packages.This is not hypothetical. Optimizely’s Opal agents already act like different team members depending on context. Contentstack’s Brand Kit lets you define voice profiles and store guidelines so that every AI-generated artifact reflects your identity. Sitecore’s Stream copilots are designed to guide content creators in real time, aligning their work with brand and role expectations.These are early signals of a future where agents carry pieces of us, including quirks, preferences, and even biases, into every exchange.<h3 id="why-this-matters">Why This Matters</h3>This is why nondeterminism is not a flaw but the feature. Deterministic systems did not need personalization. There was only one output. Nondeterministic systems can go in many directions, and personalization is what prevents chaos.The best metaphor I know is jazz. Musicians improvising do not know exactly where the others will go. They adapt, they respond, they personalize their playing to the group. The music works not because it is scripted but because the players trust each other enough to bend and flex.<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/quantumblack/our-insights/seizing-the-agentic-ai-advantage">McKinsey has argued</a> that this adaptability is the defining advantage of agentic AI. From what I have seen in publishing systems, SaaS cost optimization, and large-scale CMS migrations, I agree. The resilience comes not from rigid plans but from the ability to adapt in context.<h3 id="what-leaders-should-prepare-for">What Leaders Should Prepare For</h3>Leaders should focus on their readiness in key areas. For example, trust frameworks must extend beyond human-agent interactions into agent-to-agent ecosystems. Standards cannot stay as fixed APIs; they need flexibility built in. Identity management has to protect personality profiles and alter egos from misuse. And agents must be able to remember not just what they did for us, but how they worked with others.<h3 id="the-future-of-personalization">The Future of Personalization</h3>Personalization started with content. It evolved into experiences. Now, it is moving into interactions – first with humans and then with other agents.If we get this right, nondeterminism will not be something to suppress. It will be the source of resilience, adaptability, and creativity. The companies that thrive will not just personalize their websites. They will personalize their agents. Those agents will adapt to us, and to each other, in ways that reflect who we are or even who we choose to be.And like humans, they will remember. First impressions will matter. Grudges may form. And relationships between agents will start to look a lot like relationships between people. <hr /><h3 id="upcoming-events">Upcoming Events</h3> <img style="width:31.61%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2025/08/storyblok-joyconf-2025-logo.jpg" /><h4 id="storyblok-joyconf-2025"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://joyconf.storyblok.com/">Storyblok JoyConf 2025</a></h4>October 14-15, 2025 – Amsterdam, Netherlands November 4, 2025 – New York, NY November 6, 2025 – Los Angeles, CAJoin us at JoyConf 2025, where the future of content meets the people shaping it. Built for developers, marketers, and digital innovators, this free conference goes way beyond product updates or yet another strategy playbook. It’s where you’ll get inspired, get real, and get connected – to ideas, to the community, and to what’s possible when you build joyfully. Whether you're building lightning-fast frontends or launching cross-channel campaigns, this is where content becomes connection and collaboration becomes second nature. Come for the talks. Stay for the community. Leave with joy. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://joyconf.storyblok.com/">Save your spot.</a> <img style="width:28.9%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2025/08/sitecore-symposium-2025.jpg" /><h4 id="sitecore-symposium-2025"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://symposium.sitecore.com/">Sitecore Symposium 2025</a></h4>November 3-5, 2025 – Orlando, FLAt Sitecore Symposium, you’ll learn how to meet your customers where they are – across channels, moments, and touchpoints that didn’t exist a year ago. You’ll hear how the boldest brands in the world are transforming content into outcomes and creating experiences that are fast, relevant, and human. Join 1,500 marketers, digital leaders, and technologists in Orlando to see what’s possible when personalization scales, AI accelerates creativity, and trust becomes your competitive edge. This is the Third Wave of the Internet. And this is your moment to lead in it. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://symposium.sitecore.com/">Get your tickets today.</a> <img style="width:31.44%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2025/08/cms-kickoff-2026-logo.png" alt="" /><h4 id="cms-kickoff-2026"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff26">CMS Kickoff 2026</a></h4>January 13-14, 2026 – St. Petersburg, FLMeet industry leaders at our fourth annual CMS Kickoff – the industry's premier global CMS event. Similar to a traditional kickoff, we reflect on recent trends and share stories from the frontlines. Additionally, we will delve into the current happenings and shed light on the future. Prepare for an unparalleled in-person CMS conference experience that will equip you to move things forward. This is an exclusive event – space is limited, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff26">so secure your tickets today.</a>

Agent-to-Agent Personalization: Trust, First Impressions, and the 'Grudge' Factor

andycohen

According to a recent survey, there are more than 920 million* websites on the Internet—almost all are costly mistakes. More than 95% of these sites fail to follow Google’s recommendation to build and maintain one website that works across all devices, including desktop, tablets and smartphones. Moboom today announced the launch of Moboom3, a development tool and content management system that future proofs websites and brings together the very best of both responsive and adaptive design philosophies, all while allowing developers to build responsive websites 100 times faster than if they were to code them by hand.
Moboom3 includes a range of features that helps website owners and developers quickly deliver smarter sites that perform well on any device, putting an end to the responsive vs. adaptive debate and proactively responding to the next frontier in web development. 
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9abBIPJuO30?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Features Include:
<ul>
<li>Patent-Pending Server-Side Media Queries: Moboom’s platform ensures faster and more adaptive website performance because all decisions are made server-side. This way, devices only get the content that’s intended for them and isn’t slowed down by elements that ultimately get hidden by the device browser.</li>
<li> Import Content from Anywhere: Moboom’s adaptive content management system allows users to import and sync content in any format. Once imported into the Moboom system, it can be managed directly from the Moboom CMS or from abroad.</li>
<li>Code In Any Language: Moboom allows developers to write widgets using any programming language from PHP to .NET and Python to Perl. Plus, because Moboom delivers widgets from their own servers, widgets written in different languages can run on the same page as one another.</li>
<li>Faster Responsive Sites: Moboom websites render differently than other sites on the web. Instead of rendering in a serial fashion, from the top of the webpage to the bottom, Moboom sites render synchronically, delivering websites to the user faster than any other platform out there. </li>
</ul>
Today, 77% of all mobile searches happen at home or work—even when a desktop or laptop is readily available. People prefer their handheld devices and need an optimized experience. Moboom’s v3 platform helps companies and developers build websites that work well on all devices—even those that haven’t been invented yet. Moboom websites smartly adapt to any device on the market without having to invest in a redesign, outperforming other responsive websites in various areas such as load time, user experience and search engine ranking.
<blockquote>
  “Google rewards responsive web design, yet developers have been reluctant to adopt its methodology because of some well-known flaws like slow load times and a one-size-fits-all user experience. Moboom fixes the flaws of responsive design,” said Gavin Burnett, Founder and CEO of Moboom. “People are demanding the ability to consume online content on a wider variety of mobile and smart devices, yet most platforms only offer bolt-on solutions to accommodate new device types. Moboom was founded for this very reason. Adaptability is in our DNA, and the newest version of our web design tool and CMS makes it easier for developers to build smarter, faster websites that respond to any device.”  
</blockquote>
Leading the conversation, Moboom will be hosting a conference on Wednesday, February 12 in San Francisco focused on Responsive Web Trends. Keynoting the event will be leading mobile strategist, Jason Grigsby, co-founder of CloudFour and author of Head First Mobile Web.
 About Moboom 
Moboom was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in San Francisco, with a satellite office in Perth, Australia. The company’s mission is to inspire everyday successes by offering a better way to organize and deliver content on the ever-growing plethora of new devices. Founder and CEO Gavin Burnett, a veteran of the digital media world, and COO Jef Rice, a mobile-first tech visionary, set out to create the world’s best adaptive content management system and responsive design platform, combined into one powerful tool. For more details about Moboom, please visit <a href="http://moboom.com/">http://moboom.com/</a>.

Moboom Launches Site-Building Tool Aimed At Fixing Over 900 Million Mistakes Currently on Web

mike-johnston

Jaws, developed by the Jaws project led by Ali Fazelzadeh, has now seen its latest upgrade in the form of Jaws 1.1.0.
For those of you who are unaware of <a href="http://jaws-project.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Jaws platform</a>, it is described by its creators as a, “Framework and Content Management System for building dynamic web sites. It aims to be User Friendly giving ease of use and lots of ways to customize web sites, but at the same time is Developer Friendly, it offers a simple and powerful framework to hack your own modules.”
The open-source platform offers a user interface which is extremely user friendly, along with a host of “gadgets” which can be inserted into your website via a drag-and-drop system. To get a better idea of what it can do, check out our <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/jaws-cms-review/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Jaws CMS Review</a>.
Now though, let's take a look at what's new for Jaws users.
<h2>Private Messaging, Emblems, Fixes &amp; More</h2>
Jaws 1.1.0 is the latest release of the CMS, bringing about a huge myriad of additions, updates and fixes. Below is a full list of what you can expect from Jaws 1.1.0:
<ul>
<li>Added new Private Message gadget</li>
<li>Added support separate layout file for index page in themes</li>
<li>Added support post image to Blog gadget</li>
<li>Added more tags tag to BBCode plugin</li>
<li>Added HTML5 WebSocket Server/Client API</li>
<li>Added support url rewriting in IIS 7.0 and above</li>
<li>Added new type to Emblems gadget</li>
<li>Fixed deprecated methods/modifiers in PHP 5.5</li>
<li>Fixed comments ordering in Comments gadgets</li>
<li>Fixed conflict between layout and normal actions in Comments gadgets</li>
<li>Fixed read more links in Comments gadget</li>
<li>Fixed error/notice in FeedReader gadget</li>
<li>Fixed fetching right trimmed data value in database wrapper</li>
<li>Fixed conflict between normal and layout actions in StaticPage gadget</li>
<li>Fixed double filtering posts in Forums gadget</li>
<li>Improved support drafted topics/posts in Forums gadget</li>
<li>Improved user experience in Forums gadget</li>
<li>Improved management by adding new dynamic ACL to Forums gadget</li>
<li>Improved request parsing in Jaws_Request core class</li>
<li>Improved user's dashboard usability</li>
<li>Improved and customized bbcode plugin of CKEditor for in front-end</li>
<li>Improved SEO by replacing h2 with h3 tag in all front-end outputs</li>
<li>Improved SEO via auto convert h3 to h2 tags in main requested action</li>
<li>Updated tinyMCE to 4.0.16</li>
<li>Updated CKEditor to 4.3.2</li>
</ul>
It's fair to say that the Jaws CMS team has been busy beefing up their platform, and the long list of new features and fixes above are a testament to that. To see more about Jaws 1.1.0, check out the <a href="http://jaws-project.com/blog/show/jaws-110-released" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">official release notes</a>.
To find out more about Jaws, visit the <a href="http://jaws-project.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Jaws Project website</a>. Additionally, you can learn more about Jaws CMS via our CMS Directory.

Jaws Project Announce the Release of Jaws 1.1.0

For the second consecutive day on a lovely Parisian morning, the Jahia One conference was about to begin. <a href="/jahia-one-day-one-jahia-7-glowing-feedback-and-more/" target="_blank"> Day one of Jahia One was a success </a> , with Mike, his wife Karlynn and myself had all in attendance.
Day two however, had promised to deliver on some news for Jahia 7, and so we quickly grabbed our seats within the packed Pan Piper conference hall, and once again set up to live-tweet the event from the  <a href="https://twitter.com/cmscritic" target="_blank"> CMS Critic Twitter page </a> .
As the lights dimmed, we buckled up for some exciting product announcements and release dates which we – along with the entire Jahia Community, were eager to hear about.
<h2>News on Jahia 7 &amp; Other Products</h2>
In the build up to some major announcements, Jahia CEO Elie Auvray started the second day off with a short overview of what Jahia truly is. He touched upon Jahia's Open source nature and subscription concept before going on to praise the Jahia community as a whole.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/eli.jpg" alt="Elie Auvray" />
Elie Auvray, Jahia CEO
Much like in his opening keynote a day earlier, Elie Auvray's passion for Jahia was evident. His tone was full of conviction, and his words were laced with optimism.  
<blockquote>
“Our customers can really have an impact on the roadmap of Jahia” – Elie Auvray (Jahia CEO)
</blockquote>
Next, Elie Auvray got into the juicer stuff. He got talking about all the big announcements concerning Jahia, which the community is no doubt looking forward to. Below is a concise round-up of what's new.
<ul>
<li>Jahia 7 will officially be available on April 1, 2014.</li>
<li>Jahia xCM is being renamed and will now be known as Jahia Digital Factory.</li>
<li>Jahia Wise is being renamed and will now be known as Jahia Workspace Factory.</li>
<li>There is a new and improved Jahia Studio paired with the Jahia 7 release.</li>
<li>One of the key features of Jahia 7 is the introduction of Private App Stores.</li>
</ul>
After these announcements, Elie Auvray introduced Jahia VP &amp; General Manager of Jahia North America, Emmanuel Garcin. He addressed the crowd regarding Jahia's new partner program initiative and map, where certified partners – meaning those who are trained and certified, are now classified by their number of projects.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/emanuel.jpg" alt="Emmanuel Garcin Jahia One" />
Emmanuel Garcin, Jahia VP
Whilst Jahia's CEO and VP were announcing these products and upgrades to Jahia One's live audience, we here at CMS Critic were busy breaking the news to the wider community, which you can see in more detail right here: <a href="/jahiaone-day-two-the-opening-keynote/" target="_blank"> Jahia Day Two – The Opening Keynote </a> .
<h2>Making the Upgrade</h2>
Darcy Carrie, got into the technical stuff regarding the upgrade from Jahia 6.6 to Jahia 7 – which a colossal chunk of the Jahia community will soon be doing.
Before commencing with the demo, she explained how Java 6 and Tomcat 7 were both needed in order to run Jahia 7. The entire process was over in well under twenty minutes, which tells you everything you need to know about how quick and easy the move from Jahia 6.6 to Jahia 7 will be.
It is of no wonder then, that Jahia insist on calling it an upgrade, and not a migration – because that's precisely what it is, a quick and simple upgrade.
<h2>Secrets &amp; Surprises</h2>
Throughout the second day, Elie Auvray had hinted at some surprise announcements to come at the very end of the event. Thankfully, he didn't disappoint. 
 <img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/eli1_1.jpg" alt="Jahia One Elie Auvray" />
Elie Auvray, Jahia CEO
The Jahia CEO had not one, but two secrets to reveal – and here they are: 
 Jahia Portal Factory: A simple user interface which allows you to create, modify and deploy a range of different portals. 
 Jahia eCommerce Factory: A complete ecommerce solution with out of the box CMS and Portals. Huge array of features including multi-shop management, strong SEO capabilities, analytics &amp; sales report management, and much more. 
 Now that's what I call a surprise. 
 What's more is, both of these new products are set to arrive within three months of Jahia 7, which will be launching on the 1st April 2014. So, the Jahia community can definitely look forward to the upcoming weeks and months, as new products, content and possibilities begin to flow. 
 After these announcements, the event came to a close. Attendees were elated with the news, and the Jahia team were visibly content with the way Jahia One panned out. A roaring success, to say the least.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/conferencedayone6.jpg" alt="Jahia One Conference" />
Jahia One: A Roaring Success
Next week, I'll be looking a little deeper into the Jahia One event, giving you a more personal insight into how things went down, so be sure to watch out for that. 
 In the meantime, check out the coverage of <a href="/jahia-one-day-one-jahia-7-glowing-feedback-and-more/" target="_blank"> Jahia One: Day One </a>  to get an idea of how the opening day unravelled.

Jahia One, Day Two: Jahia 7 Release Date, Demos & Surprises

It hasn't been a crazy busy week with regards to CMS news but there are a couple of new releases that might interest those of you out there.
I've decided to start doing CMS Release Roundup's when there isn't much to go on in the release announcements. Most of the time, if the release is a significant one, there will be screenshots and all kinds of great info to share with you guys but in some of the cases, there is so little that if I tried writing a single post on it, it would either be way too short or way too boring, therefore, this week, we are doing a CMS Release Roundup!
The first release was from Joomla and is a bugfix release labeled Joomla 3.2.2. I would give you more info on this release but I'd likely end up boring you to death so for the sake of both our sanity, I'll ask you to view this engaging breakdown of the changes: <a href="http://www.joomla.org/announcements/release-news/5531-joomla-3-2-2-released.html "></a><a href="http://developer.joomla.org/version-3-2-2-release-notes.html">http://developer.joomla.org/version-3-2-2-release-notes.html</a>
Next in line is the release of Umbraco 7.0.3. This is simply a small release that fixes some issues with media, domains and the embed button in the rich text editor. Details, as always, can be found here: <a href="http://umbraco.com/follow-us/blog-archive/2014/2/3/released-umbraco-703.aspx"> http://umbraco.com/follow-us/blog-archive/2014/2/3/released-umbraco-703.aspx </a>
Those are the main ones for this week folks that we are aware of. If we missed something that you know of, please drop us a line or let us know in the comments below and we'll make sure we get it covered!

CMS Release Roundup for the week of February 7, 2014

JahiaOne day two opened with a introductory keynote from Jahia CEO, Elie Auvray.
During this announcement, a number of key announcements were made including the official date of the new major release of Jahia 7.
For those who've been following along  <a href="http://twitter.com/cmscritic"> on Twitter</a>, you'll be aware that Jahia 7 is a significant improvement over the prior 6.6 release.
For all of the latest details about the conference, feel free to follow us using the link above or tracking the hashtag, <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23jahiaone&amp;src=typd"> #JahiaOne</a>.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/eli.jpg" alt="Elie Auvray" />
Elie Auvray, Jahia CEO
Here are the main points from the keynote:
<ul>
<li>Jahia 7 will officially be available on April 1, 2014.</li>
<li>Jahia xCM is being renamed and will now be known as Jahia Digital Factory.</li>
<li>Jahia Wise is being renamed and will now be known as Jahia Workspace Factory.</li>
<li>There is a new and improved Jahia Studio paired with the Jahia 7 release.</li>
<li>One of the key features of Jahia 7 is the introduction of Private App Stores.</li>
</ul>
To get more details on everything that the Jahia 7 release includes, visit the dedicated website: <a href="http://www.jahia7.com/">http://www.jahia7.com/</a>
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/emanuel_1jpg.jpg" alt="Emmanuel Garcin" />
Emmanuel Garcin, Jahia VP &amp; General Manager Americas
In addition to these announcements, Emmanuel Garcin, VP &amp; General Manager Americas presented Jahia's new partner program initiative that strengthens the company's relationship (and the way they work) with their existing and future partners.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/emanuel.jpg" alt="Emmanuel Garcin" />
More details on this new partner program and how it works will be unveiled soon. In the meantime, you can visit the Jahia Partners portion of their website.
As always, stay tuned for our upcoming day two roundup later after the close of the conference and for full conference coverage, be sure to <a href="http://twitter.com/cmscritic">join us on Twitter.</a>

JahiaOne Day Two - The Opening Keynote

Today, on a crisp morning in the heart of beautiful Paris, <a href="http://jahia.com/" target="_blank"> Jahia</a> hosted their first ever international conference, <a href="http://jahiaone.com/" target="_blank"> Jahia One</a>. CMS Critic was in attendance – in the form of Mike, his wife Karlynn and myself.
The conference was off to a great start even before the the opening keynote began. Jahia's friendly team were initially expecting around 80 attendees for the Jahia One event, but as the conference neared, they realised that they were actually having to prepare their Pan Piper Centre venue  for a far larger amount of 170 people.  
 We live-tweeted the event using the <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23JahiaOne&amp;src=hash" target="_blank"> #JahiaOne</a> hashtag, with similar coverage planned for the second day of the event. You can catch up on those tweets, and follow them all again tomorrow, by checking out the <a href="http://twitter.com/cmscritic" target="_blank"> CMS Critic Twitter page</a>. 
 Here's a roundup of how it all went down on day one.
<h2>Passion from Jahia, Delight from Customers</h2>
Elie Auvray – the Jahia CEO, kicked off the event with an opening keynote, touching on the the importance of Jahia's customers and partners, whilst also praising his colleagues for their hard work and vision, and the attendees, for their presence and support.  
His time on the stage was short, but you sensed his passion almost immediately – setting the perfect scene for the day ahead.
 <img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/eli1.jpg" alt="Jahia One Conference Elie Auvray" /> After his short keynote, Elie Auvray introduced the Mick MacComascaigh from <a href="http://www.gartner.com" target="_blank"> Gartner Inc </a> , who spoke extensively on the emergence of the new digital age, and the role platforms like Jahia have to help bridge the gap between bickering marketing, IT and business departments across enterprises around the world.
<blockquote>
“Synergy between IT and Business is vital for [the progress of] the new digital economy.” ~ Mick MacComascaigh, Gartner Inc.
</blockquote>
Mick gave a concise, yet thought-provoking view on what he called the “new digital economy”. He pointed out how Jahia's efforts were helping to make companies more internally cohesive, and thus more successful.  
 <img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/gartnerdayone2.jpg" alt="Jahia One Conference Mick MacComascaigh" /> Jahia customers Ambercrombie &amp; Fitch and HomeAway were also both in atendance, detailing their digital journeys with Jahia, praising it's flexibility and explaining how the platform helped them to reach larger audience, scale their web presence, and offer a more flexible service.
<blockquote>
“One of the main reasons we chose Jahia was because it was so stable and secure.” ~ Taylor Pratt, HomeAway
</blockquote>
Both companies were proud to be running on Jahia, commenting on its positively evolving quality, and were eagerly awaiting the release of Jahia 7. 
<h2>A Glance at Jahia 7</h2>
Clement Egger – Jahia's Director of Product Marketing, soon got talking about <a href="http://www.jahia7.com/" target="_blank">Jahia 7</a> – the news everybody had been waiting for.  
 His comments touched on the enhanced speed and flexibility that Jahia 7 will bring to the table, focusing more on the technical side of how things will be changing for the better.  
Additionally, Egger spoke about Jahia 7's improved studio capabilities, re-designed administration panels, various framework updates, and so forth. The core principals he mentioned were focused on speed and greatly improved usability from a development standpoint. 
 <img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/jahia.jpg" alt="Jahia One Conference Clement Egger" /> Clement, along with Auvray were both sure to point out that customers looking forward to Jahia 7 should not consider it a migration – but an upgrade instead.  
 What they meant was, the process of moving from Jahia 6.6 to Jahia 7 was planned and designed to be quick and easy. Elie Auvray specifically made a point to guarantee this to his customers.
In any case, day two of Jahia One promisesto unveil far more about Jahia 7, and we can't wait. 
<h2>Delicious Food, Networking and Interviews</h2>
Aside from the keynotes and presentations, there was more to see and do at Jahia One.  
 <img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/conferencedayone.jpg" alt="Jahia One Conference" /> Lunch was served in a brilliant networking environment, allowing atendees to converse and engage over some light foods. There was plenty of variety, and plenty to go around.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/conferencedayone1.jpg" alt="Jahia One Conference Anne de Forser" /> Jahia's Anne de Forsan was also getting attendees involved with video interviews, talking about their experiences with Jahia, and their views on the day so far.  The lunch session embodied the event, with a bubbly atmosphere full of professionalism – but not without a hint of fun and friendliness. 
 The first day was certainly an enjoyable one from our standpoint, and we expect that day two will be just as engaging.
 <a href="http://twitter.com/cmscritic" target="_blank"> Join us on Twitter </a>  tomorrow for day two of Jahia One, where we will be live-tweeting all the action and news from Paris concerning Jahia 7 and more.

Jahia One, Day One: Jahia 7, Glowing Feedback, and More

Lights, Camera, Action! Jahia's first ever conference being held in the City of Lights, Paris is getting ready to begin. With double the expected attendees, this is sure to be an event to please.
This first ever conference is being held at the beautiful  <a href="http://www.pan-piper.com/"> Pan Piper conference center </a> in downtown Paris.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/banner.jpg" />
The event opens with an introductory keynote from Elie Auvray (CEO of Jahia) and Mick MacComascaigh,  Research VP with Gartner and the Lead Analyst for Web content management, this event is sure to bring the latest knowledge about the goings on at Jahia and the future of their position within the content management industry.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/img_0084930x0.jpg" alt="Eli Auvray, CEO of Jahia" />
Elie Auvray, CEO of Jahia
The program for the event can be found here: <a href="http://www.jahiaone.com/program">JahiaOne Schedule.</a>
Stay tuned for more from the conference throughout the day by <a href="http://twitter.com/cmscritic">following us on Twitter</a> or following the <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23jahiaone&amp;src=typd">#JahiaOne</a> hashtag on Twitter. Of course, we'll be offering up many posts throughout the event on the site as well.

JahiaOne Paris - Jahia Shines in the City of Light

<a name="_GoBack"></a>You’re not the little guy, anymore. Or maybe you never were to begin with. You have a huge cast of employees, spread out across a dozen offices across the country (or the globe). You’ve got a deep product or services offering and customers engaging an array of properties with little or no direct connection to each other. 
You’re a national organization, you’re a franchise-model business, you’re a big deal. There are hundreds of moving pieces in your marketing effort and you’re the one who has to keep it all together. 
Is your CMS helping or hindering you in this herculean task?
<h2>Holding the Centre: the Human Element</h2>
The most basic element of any marketing effort, big or small, is the human component; the living, breathing operators of your content machine. Organizing a large, diverse group of content creators, moderators and publishers of that content and strategic overseers can be a task too big to handle without the tools you’re using lending a helping hand. Workflow and permission tools are the first line of defence against the collapse of a complicated multi-site marketing effort. A solid workflow and permissions tool should allow you to manage the users of your CMS to function to the utmost of their skill, bound by the authority that you (and their immediate overseers) grant them. It should be granular – customizable on as many fronts as possible; give your users the ability to create, modify and delete entire pages but also give them a custom toolset to work with on any given page. 
What you want to aim for is a system that allows the highest and lowest skilled users to flourish. Have an employee with CSS and HTML knowledge? They should be allowed to directly edit the code of any given page. Have an employee who struggles with Microsoft Word? They need an interface on that exact same page that’s tailored to their level of expertise.
Seamlessness is crucial – the more work that your team can accomplish directly within your CMS, the better results you’ll have. An integrated CMS incorporating as many content tools as possible (text creation and management, image creation and editing, web and email campaigning tools, forms, landing pages, analytics, etc.) will boost your users ability to dedicate their attention on the task at hand. 
Every time a window closes and a program has to load is an opportunity for a focus breakdown. A system with fully-integrated marketing tools will allow you to reduce training time, add new members to your growing team with a minimum of fuss and allow you a single point of escalation should anything go wrong. Think big and look for a CMS that does, too.
Above the content layer itself, a nuanced workflow tool should empower you to customize the process of content creation. It should allow you to tweak the flow from ideation to collaboration to publication. At the most basic level, you should be able to assign publishers to any workgroup (product teams, faculties, offices) who can approve or reject content. 
Beyond that, a good CMS will incorporate lateral workflow elements – the ability for users to comment on and task content to each other along the same lines. If you’re working on a multi-locational campaign, for example, each office should be able to access that content, pass it back and forth and then submit it to head office for approval. This process should feel like playing ping-pong, not pulling teeth. Make sure your CMS encourages momentum instead of slowing you down.
<h2>Content Control from the Top Down</h2>
Whether you’re implementing a single site with many sub-sites or operating multiple sites within the same organization, you’ve got content fragmentation to worry about. There are elements of every multi-site layout that need to be the same; mandated from the top and integrated downward. Privacy policies, header and footer content, brand-guideline styles are all elements for which central control is required, among others. 
Your CMS should allow you to manage and deliver this content to your sub-sites with as little fuss as possible.
Generally, for centrally-controlled content, the bare minimum should be the ability to easily recognize what content is aggregated from elsewhere. Users of any operational authority level should be able to look at a page or email and know where the content comes from. This way, even if they aren’t enabled to edit that content themselves, you’re saving time answering questions when someone in the Montreal office thinks they need a different header graphic than the one the New York office uses. Users who have a solid grasp on what their responsibilities will be more inclined to focus on the content they do have ownership over. 
Beyond that, when changes are necessary, they should be easily performed by the users who have the mandate to make top-level edits and should populate down to all the sub-sites and accounts with the same instant speed you’d expect in publishing any individual piece of content. This should be instantaneous for all accounts necessary, whether part of a larger whole or an individual sub-account. If your CMS requires you to manually edit each and every time you need to update this kind of content, it may be time to rethink your CMS.
<h2>Ease of Aggregation </h2>
As websites grow, the library of press releases, news items, event listings and other general content tends to pile up. As new items are added, deciding what gets pushed to sub-sites and regional offices can be an organizational nightmare. Does the Product team page contain news releases from the home page? Does the Los Angeles office get news releases from the San Francisco office? 
If you have to deal with these kinds of questions on a post-by-post basis, you’re wasting time and energy that could be better served with bigger tasks. Look to your CMS for answers.
Content aggregation tools will allow you to tag and organize posts at the content-release level. So when you create a news article about acquiring that new San Diego property, you can tag it as “California” and “acquisition”. Once that’s done, an automatic listing of that content will appear wherever it is appropriate. This will allow you to create custom objects that can be placed on any given page and updated automatically whenever a new item is created. 
Imagine, then, that this California acquisition post will appear on the LA site, the San Francisco site, the head office news feed and the board-only site that displays all upcoming business news. All because your CMS enabled your user to tag that content. A little work setting up aggregation in the early stages will lead to a massive time savings later down the line.
This kind of aggregation should work multi-directionally; your head office should be able to create items that cascade down to individual sub-sites and your sub-sites should be able to populate back up to your main site. This kind of content sharing, controlled by automatic listing aggregation, provides a plethora of benefits – it’s a known fact that fresh content provides a massive SEO boost. Doubtless that there is content being created by your various teams that could be implemented elsewhere to keep pages full with fresh content and draw in Google and Yahoo crawlers like ants to a picnic.
<h2>A CMS to Make You, Not Break You</h2>
When choosing a CMS for your multi-site setup, keep in mind that there are two major elements to consider. The first is the human aspect of your business. You have a team or several teams of varying skill levels and discipline all working together to create your marketing effort on the web. You need a CMS that can be customized to wring the absolute best out of that team. You push them for perfection; give them a tool that will help them reach that high goal. 
The other side of the coin is the content itself, once it’s been created is it being implemented and managed in a way that supports your site setup? Aggregation, workflow and permission control that is granular and powerful can save time and effort and help you focus on the tasks that really matter. Coordination and compliance is the key to success in a complicated environment. Choose a CMS that empowers, not disables you.

In the Widening Gyre: Keeping Control of a Multi-Site Marketing Environment

Shopify - The global commerce platform

Build your business with Shopify to sell online, offline, and everywhere in between.

The global commerce platform

#ffffff

Purchasing a content management system is a big investment. There are a lot of people who will be affected by the purchase, there’s a lot of research to do, and you’ll need to plan for the implementation, not to mention the actual cost of whatever system you choose. You may also want to audit your existing site content before migrating to the new system. Needless to say, there’s a lot to think about. The last thing you want to slow you down is colleagues or bosses standing in the way of a more efficient, more powerful content management system because they aren’t on the same page as you.
Based on our extensive experience with organizations buying content management systems, the best way to address the issue of organizational buy-in is to consider all your stakeholders from the beginning.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/url930x0.jpg" alt="company buy in" />
Make a list of each person (or department) at your organization who will be impacted by your selection, and consider their needs and desires. Depending on your role, this may include any or all of the following:
 MarComm 
As marketers become increasingly tech-savvy and analytics-driven, they are making more and more of the tech decisions at companies. Regardless of who the final decision-maker is at your company, the marketing and communications folks will be heavily invested in the final outcome. We recommend speaking with them before you get too far in your search in order to find out their needs. Are they concerned with in-context analytics, branding consistency, fresh and SEO-friendly content, converting visitors to leads, sharing content across pages and sites, and/or having a mobile-friendly or responsive site design? What are their top priorities and biggest pain points?
 Information Technology (IT) 
Even if you choose a CMS-provider that can handle your content migration, CMS implementation and hosting of your CMS server, your IT department will still need to be involved to an extent in getting the CMS up and running for your organization. Additionally, you’ll probably need to have at least one or two people responsible for maintaining users in the system, adjusting permissions and access levels, and serving as the first level of support. If you choose to do the content migration, CMS hosting, backups and software upgrades in-house, then they’ll be even more involved. Speak with this team early on, and be sure to consider their technical abilities and existing time commitments, as this will help determine what types of services you’ll need to look for in conjunction with your software purchase.
 Content Contributors 
These are any social media marketers, bloggers, journalists, writers, photographers, interns, administrative assistants or others who will be updating content on your site. Some of them will be using the system daily while others may only use it every six months. Technical abilities may vary greatly from company to company and within a single company. In order to get buy-in from this group, we recommend asking them about their current pain points during your research phase and having them test your top 2-3 systems. Another crucial step to getting buy-in and participation from this group is to provide training and on-going internal support to these users post-purchase. Some end user-focused features you may want to look for are in-context editing, spell-checking, non-HTML content editing, hidden links on the live site to jump into the system for editing, image and link management, and drag and drop functionality.
 Web Developers and Designers 
If you’re redesigning your site along with upgrading to a new CMS, you may choose to outsource the design to an agency. However, once the initial design has been implemented, you will probably still have an ongoing need for web development and design work. If you’ve got in-house developers, make sure you discuss their needs and let them demo your top finalist systems. Content management systems come with a wide array of different developer tools, and a single feature, such as a code editor, could make a big difference in how easy or difficult it is to get your developers on board. Ask your developers how much weight they place on having an advanced code editor, the ability to use unlimited templates, support for mobile and responsive technologies, an active community of other users, and sample templates that can be customized for your company.
 The Higher-ups 
Your CIO, CTO and/or CMO may never spend a single minute working directly with your new content management system, but that doesn’t mean that they won’t have opinions on the technology they want you to use or what results they’d like to see from the implementation of a new system. This group may hold the purse strings as well, so it’s important to seek out their opinions early. Talk to them about your overall web content strategy and your goals, so you can be sure the product you select can help you achieve those goals. If your opinions regarding technology differ, the conversation doesn’t have to end there; however, it’s good to know where they stand ahead of time, so you can be prepared to make the case for your favorite CMS later down the road.
This is not an exclusive list of potential stakeholders, so make sure you consider all angles at your organization and write down their different (and potentially conflicting) goals and pain points early on. The best way to get buy-in is to let your stakeholders be part of your team and by making sure their needs are represented in your search. Does this mean everyone is going to be happy with your final decision? Maybe not at first. But by working together, providing on-going training, and informing all your stakeholders of the most influential factors in your decision, you can minimize the grumbling and have a smooth transition to your new CMS.
Like this article? Read more in this free Intro to Content Management Whitepaper. 
[[hannon2]]

How to Get Company-wide Buy-in for a New CMS

It looks as though there have been some serious updates and improvements over the last couple of years since I mentioned Surreal CMS in our <a href="/top-10-simple-cms/">Top 10 Simple CMS</a> post. Updates that have really become major game changers for this slick and attractive CMS.
Let's explore what's change with their latest release, labeled Surreal CMS V5.
<h2>Inline Editing</h2>
One of the most significant changes in this version is the introduction of some rather excellent inline editing capabilities. Check out this quick 30 second demo video showcasing how it works.
http://youtu.be/bQqFR3jCxDg
It's not your typical inline editor either, you simply click, type, click outside the box and it's saved. It's incredibly easy to use and I must admit that I found myself wishing it was present in all of the CMS' I test out on a day to day basis. Good work guys!
<h2>Amazon S3 Support</h2>
I bet you thought this meant that you can just host your images on Amazon S3 didn't you? No sir. You can host the entire CMS on Amazon's powerful cloud and still maintain all of the excellent additional functionality you have come to love with this new update.
This means your website can maintain amazing availability for a low cost as Amazon S3 services eliminate the need for expensive hosting!
<h2>Responsive and Touch Friendly</h2>
Your whole website is now responsive and touch friendly! This means you can even use the slick inline editor with your smart phone or tablet! (Trust me, I just tested it with my LG G-Pad tablet as I wrote this and it works exactly the same).
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/responsive.png" />
<h2>New Photo Gallery Editor</h2>
Surreal CMS V5 also comes with a new photo gallery editor that can integrate with many lightbox-style galleries and sliders as well!
—
That's not all, however. There is a lengthy list of features that you can read more about on their website here: <a href="http://www.surrealcms.com/features">Surreal CMS Features. </a>
I'd strongly recommend you go try it out. The devs have done an amazing job with this one and I'd be surprised if it didn't give them a serious leg up on their competition.

Surreal CMS launches V5 with huge improvements

With well over 12 million users, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/weebly" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> Weebly</a> is a hugely popular website builder, bursting with user-friendly features. Just check out our <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/weebly-review-all-new-weebly/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> Weebly Review</a> if you don't believe me.
Today, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/weebly" rel="nofollow">Weebly</a> announced a couple of brand new features aimed at making ecommerce website easier to build, and all <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/weebly" rel="nofollow">Weebly</a> website types safer to navigate for everybody concerned.
So, let's take a look at what's new with Weebly.
<h2>Start Selling with Weebly</h2>
From today onwards, Weebly users can enjoy the ability to build high-quality shopping experiences.
According to Weebly, their developers have studied the most successful online retailers and combined the simplicity of drag &amp; drop site creation with powerful selling features to make it easy and affordable to start selling products online.
So if you're looking to start selling online,  Weebly now gives you everything you need to get going.
Here are just some of the features on offer:
<ul>
<li>Integrated Shopping Cart</li>
<li>Mobile Store and Checkout</li>
<li>Coupon Codes</li>
<li>Digital Goods</li>
<li>Flexible Product Options (for sizes, colors, etc.)</li>
<li>Order Tracking and History</li>
<li>New <a href="https://secure.weebly.com/weebly/eclick.php?u=2522769&amp;c=announcement.2014-01-29.new-commerce-features.no-store&amp;s=418353603&amp;t=420df11430b7155bf31ab0ef8365b249&amp;r=https://www.cmscritic.com/weebly/weebly/mobile/landing.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">iPhone </a>  and <a href="https://secure.weebly.com/weebly/eclick.php?u=2522769&amp;c=announcement.2014-01-29.new-commerce-features.no-store&amp;s=418353603&amp;t=420df11430b7155bf31ab0ef8365b249&amp;r=https://www.cmscritic.com/weebly/weebly/mobile/landing.php?device%3Dandroid" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Android </a>  Apps to Manage Your Store</li>
<li>Accept Credit Cards (with Stripe, Authorize.net, or PayPal)</li>
<li>Amazing New Product Search</li>
<li>Inventory Tracking</li>
<li>Shipping &amp; Tax Calculations</li>
<li>Checkout On Your Own Domain (instead of checkout.weebly.com, SSL, PCI Compliant)</li>
</ul>
The full list of features, along with an ecommerce introductory video, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/weebly-introduce-further-ecommerce-stock-photo-updates/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> can be seen right here</a>.
For all the powerful ecommerce features, Weebly users will need to be using the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/weebly" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> Business Plan</a>. Although, Weebly are now offering a smooth 30-day money back guarantee.
<h2>Safety First with Weebly's SSL</h2>
Security conscious Weebly Business Plan users can also benefit from another brand new enhancement, SSL certificates.
SSL certificates ensure that visitors can navigate your website over a secured 128-bit encrypted connection, displaying a universally recognised padlock in the address bar.
If you'll be using Weebly's Ecommerce features, the SSL certificate enables customers to checkout directly on your domain, instead of being re-directed to Weebly's standard payment gateway. Best of all, Weebly takes care of all the setup for you so it's incredibly easy to add an SSL certificate to your site.
For more information on Weebly, check out their <a href="https://www.weebly.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">official website</a>. Additionally, explore more of <a href="/products/weebly/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> Weebly via our CMS Directory</a>.

Weebly Introduces Ecommerce & SSL Features

As times change, new devices emerge and browsing patterns evolve, it's never too long before your large scale enterprise website is in need of yet another complete revamp and relaunch. 
Website deployment is by no means an easy task for any enterprise. Fortunately though, <a href="http://www.magnolia-cms.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> Magnolia</a> are seasoned experts when it comes to such projects. Whether the challenges come in the form of training or retraining developers to manage the task at hand, or migrating huge sections of existing content, Magnolia have been there, and done that.
The pitfalls of deploying an enterprise website are many, and failing to avoid the unnecessary risks whilst managing the necessary ones can have seriously adverse consequences – sometimes at the expense of the entire project. 
So, to help you and your enterprise approach your website deployment in the smartest and safest way, here are some highly effective strategies derived from just some of the points within <a href="http://www.magnolia-cms.com/campaigns/pitfalls-cms-critic.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Magnolia's information-rich white paper</a>.
<h2>Understand Content Migration Time</h2>
Migrating existing content when re-deploying your enterprise website has immense benefits. Regular visitors of the website will remain engaged post-launch thanks to the familiar content, whilst content migration also does wonders for maintaining your website's search engine rankings. 
However, the process is multi-layered, requiring a watchful eye, and most importantly, time. 
It is vital to understand that when carrying out a content migration process, it is not just page content that needs to be migrated. CSS, JavaScript, page templates, images and media files all need to be accounted for, with each of these different elements requiring a range of tools and differing amounts of time to successfully process and migrate.
 For example, a web-scraping tool might be able to migrate the content of a single page in a few seconds, but this would not be representative of the time required to transfer other resource types. Images might need to be resized or reformatted to fit the new page templates and so take significantly longer to be migrated. You also need to factor in time to manually check and validate each page, to make sure it's been properly migrated and doesn’t break when rendering.
Also, it's worth noting that the code captured by web-scraping tools does not transfer variation functionality. This includes things like geolocation and personalization parameters, which may need to be re-configured or re-written altogether prior to the launch of the new website. 
 Avoiding resource duplication is another potential issue. In many cases, the same resource might be referenced from multiple website pages. If your migration tool isn't intelligent enough to detect this, you'll end up with multiple copies of the resource in your asset library. Cleaning up these duplicates is a time-consuming manual process, which will only be further compounded if your asset library is on the large side.
<h2>Construct &amp; Stick to a Solid Post-launch Plan</h2>
Deploying a revamped website requires more than just a short-term event. You'll need to piece together an actionable, manageable post-launch plan to cover future additions and other aspects.
After all, it won't be too long before bugs need fixing, new features need adding and pages need updating. Hence, your post-launch plan should include processes for website backup, restore and upgrade. 
 When it comes to defining a backup schedule, ask yourself the question, “If a website failure occurs right now, how many hours of data can be lost without a critical impact on the business? A week? A day? An hour?”. The answer to this question should determine your backup interval. For most companies, a daily backup will usually suffice; however, this depends heavily on the nature of your website. If you have a large team of editors deployed to apply near-constant website updates, you may want to shorten the backup intervals down to just a few hours. 
Cloud backups are typically more complex than regular physical server backups, and the shared nature of cloud servers usually means you have to work harder to ensure that your backup contains all your data and only your data. Such checks would need to be made regularly.
 Of course, being able to restore backups is equally as important. A common mistake is to perform regular website backups without ever actually testing them. Ensuring that the backups are working on a regular basis is vital, as many factors can come into play to disrupt the process. For example, changes in server infrastructure might render a backup invalid, or a lack of familiarity with the restoration process might result in longer downtimes. As a rule of thumb, schedule backups to occur on at least a monthly basis to avoid problems during a genuine crisis. 
 When handling website upgrades, you will need separate environments to test the new version of the website before rolling it out to production. Typically, you will first deploy to a development environment with minimal data, then to a test environment with a larger sample of data, and finally to an integration environment which has a full copy of the production data. 
This last step will also provide you with a useful hint regarding the amount of time the upgrade will actually take. This allows you to comunicate more consicely with website visitors. Finally, if everything works well, you can backup the current production website with all its data (as a failsafe against unforeseen failures) and then deploy the new website.
<h2>Embrace the Change</h2>
Change of any type can be hard to adjust to – and that includes enterprising companies. Developing and deploying an enterprise website will not come without elements of internal politics and technical technical issues, so be prepared for some dissent as the impact of website's changes come into effect.
Naturally, this apprehension is primarily linked to the time and money involved in such a large project, along with the potential negative impact on the organization's reputation should the project fail.
So, before embarking on the journey to deployment, you must get all stakeholders and other important parties to agree on the high-level issues. This includes technical and branding requirements, budget, schedule, team and vision. But as work progresses and changes begin to come into effect, expect the lower-level details like icons, fonts, navigation, copy style and so forth to take center stage, as more people to come forward with criticism and feedback. 
In the three months prior to launch, comments, feedback and criticism of such elements will reach their peak. In many cases, it will seem as if everybody within the organization has a different, yet increasingly loud opinion. At this stage – and at all other stages, it is important to ensure that this large volume of often-conflicting feedback doesn't derail the project. Establish some ground rules, but maintain the openly communicative progress with all stakeholders, both internal and external. Ask for feedback as needed, but weigh opinions appropriately. 
Such feedback from different parties is all part of embracing the changes involved in overhauling a large scale website, and so level handedness is most certainly required amongst those in command.
 Most importantly, don't let the pressures of these comments, nor the weight of the company's reputation on your shoulders to falter the project. Just as their is risk involved, so too is there massive potential to make your website deployment a roaring success, simply by educating yourself about the likely issues you’ll encounter and making sure that you’ve planned for and mitigated important risks.
To delve even deeper into the most common obstacles of deploying large scale enterprise websites – and how to avoid them, read Magnolia's brilliantly explanatory white paper, <a href="http://www.magnolia-cms.com/campaigns/pitfalls-cms-critic.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Top Ten Pitfalls Of Large Scale Website Deployments</a>.

How to Avoid the Prevalent Pitfalls of Deploying an Enterprise Website

If there's one thing that I've learned in my many years covering the CMS space, it's that I will never truly know about every single CMS out there, no matter how hard I try. Every day, it seems, a new content management system hits the ‘net and while some of the developers of these systems are good at marketing and pushing their product, many aren't.
That's one of the reasons I started CMS Critic in the first place over 6 years ago. I wanted to share my experiences with each CMS (including the lesser known ones) and help people find the real hidden gems.
Finding the perfect CMS is not an easy thing to accomplish. So today, I'm going to share with you some suggestions and tips I've learned over my many years of consulting and providing advice.
<h2>Don't be wowed by the interface.</h2>
There are some beautiful and stunning interfaces within a large number of content management systems out there but one important thing to keep in mind is that, just like choosing a partner, you don't always want to make your selection based on looks. The adage “it's what's on the inside that counts” couldn't possibly be more true and applies to far more than just dating and relationships. I've seen a significant number of CMS with beautiful interfaces but little to no functionality or they are chock full of bugs. That's not to say there aren't the exceptions to the rule but it's definitely something to keep in mind. It's easy to make something pretty, it's hard to make it pretty AND functionally useful.
Don't always be quick to dismiss the system with the simple interface. More often than not, these are the first ones you should look at. Usually, it's a sign that the developer prefers less bloat and is more focused on the code and functionality. In some cases, it's the flip-side and simple literally means simple but it's important to always thoroughly explore all options before you write something off as “too plain” or “too fancy”.
<h2>Do make a list of of needs and wants.</h2>
Another important item people tend to overlook when searching for a CMS is the requirement for a clear and concise need / want list. This list should be very straight forward and easy to compile. I recommend getting together with members of each functional area that will be using the CMS (or supporting it) and listing out items that absolutely MUST be in the new CMS and items that would simply be ‘nice to have'.
Some examples of needs might be:
<ul>
<li>Strong workflow functionality.</li>
<li>Integration with existing ecommerce suite.</li>
<li>Multilingual capabilities</li>
</ul>
An example of a want might be:
<ul>
<li>Workflow Notification by SMS (system may have email notification but no SMS in which case, you could make do fine if it fit your other requirements).</li>
</ul>
I recommend always making sure you involve all of the business units that will be in some way touching the system. This helps eliminate frustration amongst all parties and allows everyone to feel like they've had a chance to offer their input.
Don't forget to think about what you already have (if you are currently using a homegrown system or another CMS) and what you couldn't live without during a change.
<h2>Do check out each vendors support groups / forums / Twitter accounts (if available).</h2>
It's vital that you always check out how a vendor treats their existing customers before you go spending money with them. I recommend checking out their Twitter accounts thoroughly (if they have them).
<ul>
<li>Do they reply to queries from existing and potential customers?</li>
<li>Are they helpful when doing so?</li>
<li>How active are they on each platform?</li>
</ul>
Forums are another excellent way to see how people are reacting to a certain product. If the company you are considering is not active and assisting those with questions, steer clear as it's a sure sign of nightmares down the road.
<h2>Do contact each vendor you are considering and ask lots of questions.</h2>
Don't be afraid to grill each vendor you are considering. A good vendor will be happy to answer your questions and if they want your business, they will do their best to give you thorough and complete answers. This is another great way to guage how much value the vendor places on acquiring you as a customer. A good vendor will work hard for your business, answering your questions and directing you to the correct resources.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/questions_to_ask_when_chosing_a_cloud_vendor1.jpg" />
This is also a good way to guage how quickly a vendor can respond with accurate answers. If it takes them a long time and you get bounced from person to person, this could be a good indicator as to how easy or hard it might be to get support down the road if you became their customer.
<h2>Do not let the vendor lead the demo for you.</h2>
Now, this might seem a little bit odd but I've seen a number of demos where the customer has simply sat back and let the vendor lead the demo showcasing all of the great stuff within their product. Here's the problem with letting the vendor lead the demo, they will only show you the stuff that works and works well. 
I always recommend making a list of what you expect from the demo, what do you want to see, what you do not care about and telling the vendor how to proceed. Don't be afraid to throw in curveball questions during the demo to see how they react. Can they answer your question? Are they lost and stammering? These things are important as well as they make the vendor think how they would use their system to accomplish your specific tasks and since you are on a demo, you can visualize how easy it might be for you as a customer as well.
This is a critical one and can be the a significant deciding factor when choosing a product so don't be afraid to take charge! It's your money after all.
—
I hope these few items help you in your search for the perfect CMS. Do you have other things you think are important that you'd like to share? Please do so in the comments below

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